Windows 10 Gets More Secure With Creators Update And You Can Download It Right Now

One of the best ways to ensure that your computer is as secure as possible is to make sure you keep all the software on it up-to-date. Usually that means waiting for whoever makes the operating system — like Microsoft, Apple, Google — to decide it’s your turn to receive an automatic download. Sometimes you can jump to the front of the line.

Microsoft

Windows 10 Creators Update

Take the Windows 10 Creators Update. Microsoft has said that it could take months to roll out to every Windows 10 PC. If, however, you don’t want to wait around twiddling your thumbs, you can take matters into your own hands. All it takes to get things rolling is a quick download from Microsoft’s website.

Head over to this page, grab the Windows 10 Update Assistant by clicking the “update button” and your download will begin. Expect it to take quite a while to finish, and be advised that it’s going to gobble up a few gigs if you’re on a connection with a data cap. Follow the Assistant’s instructions and then sit back and wait for the update process to finish.

A More Secure Windows 10

It’s called the Creators Update, but the latest Windows 10 update brings improvements for all users, not just creative types. Among them are a bunch of security and privacy-related tweaks. Take the Edge browser, for example. Microsoft has beefed up security by placing stricter limits on the way it can access certain Windows functions. That means that even if a piece of malware was able to hijack Edge it’s now tougher for that malware to break out of the browser’s sandbox (a virtual container that isolates programs to reduce risk).

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Windows Defender Security Center

There’s also the new Windows Defender Security Center. It ties together information from Windows 10′s built-in anti-malware protection, the Windows firewall, family safety settings, app and browser controls and device health reports to let you know if there are any glaring security issues you need to address. Having a unified dashboard to manage security-related settings greatly simplifies things.

Here’s a change that might seem insignificant at first glance that can actually have a major impact on the security of your Windows 10 PC. Microsoft has introduced a setting that makes it so apps can only be installed via the Store. Enabling that setting should make it much harder for your PC to be compromised by malware, since malware distributors aren’t in the habit of .

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Windows 10′s new app restrictions setting

It does block legitimate programs, too, like Google Chrome in the example image. If you still want to be able to install the odd app from outside the store, you can choose to receive warnings instead of blocking installations altogether.

Another great way to keep your Windows PC secure is to make sure you lock it every time you step away from it. You can do that by pressing the Windows key + L on your keyboard, but the Creators Update introduces a slick new feature that automates the process.

It’s called Dynamic Lock. Pair a Bluetooth device that you always have on your person — say, a smartwatch or your phone — and Windows 10 can automatically lock your computer when it detects that you’ve moved out of range.

There are also loads of fixes you can’t see, like patches to fix vulnerabilities in Windows 10. It’s a major update even if you don’t consider yourself to be a creator of things, and there’s no reason to wait around for your machine to be automatically updated. Go download the Update Assistant and kickstart the process!